Chapter 3 – The Beautiful Witch
“Oh man! This is just awesome! We seriously made it all the way here in a single jump. This thing’s really handy.” “Quit getting excited over every little thing. What are you child?” “No matter how old a man gets they never forget what it’s like to be a kid.” “Hmpf.” “But I’ve got to ask, are you okay after making a fantastic jump like this? What’re we going to do if we hit somebody?” “There is no need to worry about that. This ‘Ship’ device has the same sort of magic incorporated into it as our school uniforms that prevents people from recognizing us so no one will see us while we are in transit.” “I see.” “Lulli, let me just confirm this with you one more time. Our objective this time will be reinvestigating the woods. If we feel that there is anything then we will return to the academy right away and inform the Knight Squad.” “Yeah, yeah, you don’t have to keep telling me, I got it already.” While the two of them were talking, there was a pair of eyes watching them. Towering above them in a massive nearby tree was a black squirrel. The squirrel had a fur unlike any animal in the human world and red eyes that stared intently at the uninvited guests. Its vision being shared with its master deep within the woods. “A man and a woman, hm,” muttered Lucia in a seductive voice as she was watching the images run through her head. “Those clothes… I wonder if they are involved with the Knight Squad… If that is so then they must by mages. Yes. I can certainly sense magic coming from them.” The name of the Gouma Knight Squad is well-known throughout the Demon World. There are many who are hunted by them as soon as they enter the Human World and occasionally there are times where the Gouma Knight Squad will make expeditions into the Demon World as well. As far as the magic races are concerned, they are one of the things to be wary of. “Could it be that one of those two was the one who defeated my pet dragon I had been using as a lookout? Hmmm, I had even made a point of choosing a pet that would not be so easily defeated as well,” said Lucia, her face composed and showing no signs of either danger or panic. Or so it would seem, anyway. To Lucia, the dragon that was defeated was nothing more than one of her many familiars. When it came to their master she wielded a power that could not even compare to theirs. “I know, if they are from the Gouma Knight Squad then this is perfect. I will make the place where those two lived my castle.” If they are mages then they are sure to be living someplace nice. Such was the thought that was running through Lucia’s head as she then went about watching the footage sent from her sentinel once again and started forming a plan. “As I thought, the woman is sure to live someplace that is adorable. I’m sure of it. I will be sure to take her alive and have her lead me to her home. If that is so, then…” Lucia went on, now with a cruel grin on her face, “I do not believe I will need the man.” An opportunity was soon to come. “Oi, Yukiha, you think we could split up from here on out?” “Hm? Why do you ask?” “Well it would be faster that way, wouldn’t it? Its simple math, if two people search on their own at the same time then they’ll be able to cut their search time in half.” “That… May be so, but…” “What? You are going to be lonely with me gone?” “Do-Don’t be ridiculous! It’s just that, well…” “Don’t worry about it. If anything happens I’ll save you in no time flat.” A-All right, With this, the two of them soon split up. Once Lucia saw this through the eyes of her beast she could not help but let a smile break out on her face. She then stood up from the beast and walked out of the small cabin. “Play, play girls, Dance, dance Venus,” said the woman as she spun her words together as though she were singing all the while bathing in what little twilight was breaking through the trees. This was an incantation. It was her magic and her magic alone that allowed her to utilize her “Original Sin" which was her own magic.“Babylon Luxuria” Zuzu. Zuzuzuzuzu. Zuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzu. It was a strange screeching sound that seemed to linger in the air. This sound that would make one want to cover their ears without realizing it emanated from the witch’s feet. The black shadow of her sensual silhouette against the ground then began to warp and distort itself. The shadow then grew and from it came a single a dog. Then after that dog broke free from her shadow more and more came to be born. One after another more crawled out of the pitch black darkness that was her shadow as though they were rising from the grave. It was almost like witnessing the gates of hell being open. Or, for all we know, this may very well be what that would look like. “That’s it. Be born. Be born my adorable pets.” In the end, there were: lion’s, phoenixes, snakes, wolves, dogs, cats, unicorns, drakes, and flying horses. Every one of them looking as different from any animal ever seen in the human world, in total there were about one hundred of them. With a myriad of monsters at her beck and call she then smiled an empress and said, “Uhu, now then, let us get started.” Each Witch is able to use a special kind of magic that only they can use known as their “Original Sin.” This magic is different from flame magic or lightning and much of the magic that the magic races use are completely different from the everyday magic that humans use. Their magic is well beyond that of a human’s. A human’s and a Witch’s ability to use magic is not even worth comparing. The magic in which a Witch can use is on a whole other scale and level of destructive power. It was once said that Witches were able to stand on equal footing with the immortal Vampires because of the unnaturally high number of Witches who could utilize their Original Sin. In this case, Lucia von Elde Fern’s unique magic was “Babylon Luxuria,” which gave her the power to create an infinite number of magical beasts. “I found you,” said Lucia as she used one of her hands like a telescope and located her target, the boy, a few kilometers away. From what she could tell from seeing him passing between the dense forest of old trees he was just walking casually walking with his hands in his pockets. In the next minute, however, the boy then started looking all over the place and checking his surroundings. “No way, It cannot be, did he sense me?” Herself aside, she made a point of stifling the mana of her subordinates. The same could be said for her presence and bloodlust, suppressing them to their very limits so as to avoid detection. The reason for all this was because Lucia did not want to be noticed. This is precisely why she held her breath and was waiting for an opportunity to present itself and yet he was able to sense her from that a great distance? Just how strong was this boy that was in her sight? While Lucia was still surprised, the boy had stopped walking. Turning his back on her and then making movement around his lower abdomen. Lucia’s face then took on a very sour look. “Was his looking this way and that and splitting up from his partner all for this?” she thought. What the boy was about to start was the act of urination. In layman’s terms he went to, “take a leak.” On the verge of relieving himself, the boy then raised his voice, exposed his lower extremity and began to return the water that was built up in his body back to the forest. “How dare him… How dare he scare me like that! No, I wasn’t scared. I wasn’t scared in the slightest bit,” thought Lucia to herself as she seemed to seethe with anger and began to take it out on the boy. Lucia then mounted a large black serpent that was nearby and began giving orders to her obedient servants that were standing behind her. “Go forth my adorable pets! Eat to your heart’s content!” In that instant, all the beasts that were being kept behind her were now let loose. The large mass of pitch black then scattered and rushed into the forest and out of sight. Now all thought of nothing but sinking their fangs, horns, beaks or claws or whatever they had into their target. “Hm? Uh- Uaaaaaaah! What, Where did you all come from? As the boy was right in the middle of relieving himself the boy could not help but feel dismayed by this sudden attack. His hands being occupied as they were the boy had no means of fighting them off. “Ho-Hold on, wait a second, I’m almost done! Gyaaaaaaaaa!” screamed the boy as he found himself being trampled underfoot by a herd of black beasts unable to oppose them and having no choice but to take their attacks head-on. “Uhu. Uhuhuhu.” The beasts she had sent were late in returning so Lucia, who was still astride the giant snake, then went to where the boy was. Upon finding him, she could not help but look amused at the state he was in. “For you to die with your lower extremities exposed like this has to be the most miserable way to for a man to die. Ahaha, do forgive me,” sneered Lucia as she continued watching her beasts prey on him. As she was watching this grisly scene of predation she could not feel that something was wrong. “What’s this? There’s no blood,” she thought. Be it on the ground or the bodies of her beasts there was not a single drop of blood to be found. If this were like always the fur of her beasts would be dyed red and yet- *THUD* “Eh?” *THUD*THUD*THUD* Lucia could not believe her eyes. All the beasts that she believed had attacked the boy started to collapse one after another, all of them unmoving and unconscious. The beasts that had attacked him continued to fall off him until finally one could make out his figure among all the unconscious beasts. Lucia was speechless. Astounded at what she was seeing. For what she saw was the boy, standing upright, and still continuing to pee. He did not move a single step and continued to relieve himself almost as though nothing had happened at all while exuding a very imposing air about him, his back looking rather manly as well. “Wha- Eeh? Wh-Why are you not-“ “Why you… I can’t believe you did that,” said Lulli in a low voice which left Lucia, shocked by this whole scene, at a complete loss for words. Looking as though he finally finished relieving himself he then shook his body a few times, closed up his pants and then turned around to look at Lucia. “I don’t know who you are or where you come from but don’t go getting in the way of someone’s sacred bathroom time. Learn to take a hint, will you?!” said Lulli whose eyes, full of anger, seemed to pierce Lucia’s very being. As far as taking hints was concerned, the most opportune time to attack a human being is when they are busy relieving themselves so Lucia took that as a hint to attack him. Whatever the case, she could not help but feel that the boy who was able to pull off his relieving himself was not reading the mood very well but he just continued to grumble. “I mean honestly… If you scare me like that I’m going to have trouble going. Aw man, I think there’s still some left over. Shit, is this that constant urge to pee that every middle-aged person has to deal with? This is just freaky.” “You… Just what did you do to my beasts?” “I didn’t do anything,” said the boy flatly, filling Lucia’s head with doubts. She did not know if it showed on her face or not but Lulli then went on to explain himself. “You know how there are people like me who always cloak themselves in a weak layer of mana, right? Well it was thanks to that that I am still standing right now.” The ones who are able to generate man within their own bodies are the magic races as well as a percentage of the human beings. They are able to generate unconsciously as well as circulate it throughout their bodies. Depending on how much training one does it is possible to manipulate the flow of one’s mana to make it visible as well as do the opposite and suppress it. In fact, that was the exact thing that Lucia was doing until today. She was suppressing her energy to its very limits in a vain attempt to hide her presence. “So to put it simply, my ‘weakest’ is stronger than your beasts when they were at their ‘strongest.’ That’s all it boils down to, in the end.” “Impossible,” thought Lucia. The attack power of her beasts was by no means that weak. What’s more, the ones she had brought about this time were specialized breed that were made for fighting. For her beasts to be unable take down one human at their full strength was nothing short of unbelievable. “Just who are you?” “I’m Asagami Lulli and technically I guess I’m a mage.” A mage the general term for one, who has dabbled in the magical arts, goes about bringing an end to magical beings. “These magical beasts,” muttered the boy, Lulli, as he looked at the numerous magical beasts at his feet. “I guess these are your familiars, huh. This color looks a lot like the color of that dragon not too long ago… So does that mean that you were the one controlling that dragon, too?” “Yes, that’s right,” said Lucia with a smile, “I brought it into the world with lots of love just like this!” Lucia then overdramatically raised her arms and then bellowed the words: “Babylon- Luxuria!” In an instant, her shadow warped and became larger and from the pitch black darkness came a single beast, a very bizarre one at that. It had had the body of a lion and yet it had two heads, one a lion and the other of a goat and the tail turning into that of a snake as well. It was as if multiple animals had been mixed together to form this miraculous creature. This grotesque beast was a chimera and was brought about by Lucia’s power. Her ability of combining animals together again was a special characteristic of her Original Sin. “Hmmm… That speed, scale and output of your magic… It’s not just some simple summoning magic, huh… So I guess that makes that your Original Sin then. Sheesh… So there really was a witch here,” said Lulli, thinking that the bad feeling he had was right on the money. “That’s right. I am a Witch. I am far superior existence that doesn’t even compared to you lowly humans,” declared Lucia in an arrogant tone as she stroked the pitch black fur of her composite beast. “My name is Lucia von Elde Fern. You best remember it for it is the name of the most beautiful woman in all of Demon World,” continued Lucia as she then went about pouring her magic into her beast in anticipation of her chimera’s fight with Lulli. Whatever the case, she understood that the boy had an abnormally strong defensive power. So strong in fact that it did not look like it could be broken with an ordinary attack spell. So in that case she had only one choice: to concentrate on breaking through his defenses at a single point and aim for a critical hit. “Take this!” yelled the woman, letting loose her chimera. The hungry beast moving at such a speed that the eye could barely keep up with it as it was bearing down on its target. On one hand Lulli neither put up a defensive stance, nor showed any sign of trying to evade its attack and simply stood where he was they clashed. It looked as though the chimera sank its sharp powerful fangs into the boy’s soft flesh- but to no avail. The fangs of the beast stopped right at his skin. The chimera boasted incredible biting strength that could tear its victims to pieces but not only could it not bite him it could not even get one tooth to touch him. “Haha, way to go pup, what, Huh, or were lions related to cats?” Despite having a beast much larger than himself trying to make a meal of him his tone remained nonchalant. “It’s really amazing that it can stay conscious even after attacking me. Most of the ones that attack me end up self-destructing when they touch my mana.” In spite of saying, Lulli then made his hand into a fist. “Your drool’s dirty so back off for a little… bit!” It was a simple punch. There was hardly any room for him to pull back his punch but nevertheless he unleashed it on the beast. It well exceeded a simple thud and sent the chimera’s massive body flying through the air like a rocket. Almost like some kind of bad joke, the creature finally stopped after knocking over a dozen trees and falling to the ground. Utterly stunned, Lucia could not help but let her jaw drop. “Just who… Just who is this human?” thought Lucia. Seeing Lulli wield such unbelievable power Lucia could not help but fear him. Lucia von Elde Fern was by no means weak. Her Original Sin, “Babylon Luxuria,” was an incredibly fearsome power of hers. She was able to create an endless number of magical beasts that felt neither fear nor rebellion and simply followed her commands. In other words she was able to create army that followed her every command and did not fear death. Being able to summon thousands of magical beasts who were at her beck and call the word “one woman army” was most suited for her. She was one of the chosen strong and was able to topple an entire country by herself as well. However, her armies of magical beasts weren’t able to harm him. At this point she was all out of options. Lucia was now driven into a corner the likes of which she had never experienced before. “Ah, well, let’s see… I know you’re pretty shocked right now,” said Lulli as he looked troubled while Lucia on the other hand felt nothing but despair. “But don’t worry. I don’t plan on fighting you and I don’t plan on hurting you, either.” It was the after this that Lulli said something unbelievable: “I make it my policy to not hit women.” Asagami Lulli will, under no circumstances, hit a woman. In his mind there was no such option. What’s more, to him she was not just Witch but a fine woman as well. Regardless of whether she was currently the strongest Witch in all of Demon World she was someone to be protected as well as a treasure that was never to come to harm. “But I’ve got to say she’s a real beautiful, sexy lady, huh… Wait, not that!” thought Lulli as unwanted fantasies began to creep into his head and stop his thinking. Once his thoughts were in order, he once again looked straight at Lucia. Her eyes were wide open and looked to be shocked. Seemingly at a loss about what to do after witnessing his power as well as hearing his claim of “not hitting women.” “Just what are you trying to do? Is this some kind of feint?” “No, I’m serious.” “But I am a Witch, you know? In the eyes of your mages of the Knight Squad am I not an enemy who must be defeated?” “Yeah, it kind of looks that way, huh. But then again, I don’t plan on taking part in a mission like that or anything like that until the day I die. I won’t fight somebody I don’t want to fight.” Though Lulli said this in a very carefree way the Witch was anything short of bewildered. Perhaps it was due to the horrendous gap between their powers that she felt that he was looking down on her but Lulli himself had no such intention. His intention was to be as sincere and truthful as he could be with her. Though he had a fist that could end everything with a single blow Asagami Lulli had no desire to use it. One of his policies was that if he ever fought that he would fight with his all but from other people’s standpoints it may very well look like he is holding back. In other words, he may come off someone who likes to be rough but is actually soft. Lulli himself once felt that same way towards his master. When it came to fighting it felt like Julius never fought him seriously and he always hated it. His master’s always holding back against women aside, Lulli then couldn’t help ask the man whose hobby was tormenting runts whenever he felt like it, “why don’t you fight seriously?” voicing his dissatisfaction. “What are you stupid?” snapped Julius as he was asked the question but then showed a cynical grin his face, “being able to choose between being rough and being soft is the spice of life.” In the end, to this very day, Lulli is still struggling to figure out what his master meant by that. If one was to translate this in the most positive way it would be, “Being rough on yourself is the very definition freedom,” which ultimately wouldn’t be too much of a stretch. Whatever the case, even if it was a little forced, Lulli convinced himself that that was what he meant. Be as rough as you can. Be as soft as you can. Give it everything you have and don’t. “You said your name was Lucia, right? For starters, why don’t you tell me why you came here to the human world? Depending on what you say, I might have to get rough with you but depending on what you say it could be the opposite. If you quietly go back to the Demon World I won’t mind escorting you part of the way, you know?” said Lulli jokingly. For a short time Lucia looked as though she was contemplating it but: “Uhu Uhuhu,” ultimately, a bewitching smile appeared on her face. “There are people like you who pop up every now and then, aren’t there. Going about spouting such things as feminism or what have you as well as being rough on oneself when nobody asked them to. Saying such naïve things like you will not kill women and children and becoming addicted to the catharsis of it all. Whenever I fight someone like that that, this is what I think,” continued Lucia as she made a grin on her face that looked like it would cause her red lipstick to crack. “I’m so lucky to have such an idiot for an opponent.” Once she said this, Lucia then took one step and then another, closing the distance between her and the boy. “Ah, I knew it, so it did turn out like this,” muttered Lulli under his breath. With this he was sure that she came to the Human World for some reason and that it was because of it that she would not go back that easily. “Now then, just what should I do?” thought Lulli to himself as he let his head lean to the side. Before he realized it, however, Lucia had closed the gap between them a great deal. Enough so that they were not only within striking distance of each other but they could practically butt heads. Bringing her head in closer, she then went on to look at his face as though it were a work of art in a museum. “Hmmm, your face is, well… passable I suppose. I certainly cannot complain about your strength, though.” “Wha-What’s with you?” said Lulli, feeling a little uneasy. Out of reflex, Lulli then took a step back and upon seeing this Lucia could not help but let a faint smile show on her face. “All right, I have decided,” stated Lucia as her bewitching gaze and mischievous eyes were all focused on Iuli. What then passed through her lustrous looking lips was something that Lulli never would have thought he would hear her say. “Won’t you become my boyfriend?” “Huh?" “Just what is going on here?” asked Kuhouin Yukiha, struggling to believe what she was seeing with her own two eyes. After parting ways with Lulli and hearing howling, tremors as well as the sounds of an incredible struggle echoing throughout the forest Yukiha had rushed back to the source of all this commotion and what she saw was: “Oh. Yukiha. You okay?” asked Lulli. Talking as though the situation he was in wasn’t awkward and not feeling nervous at all. “My, my, if it isn’t the woman that was with you before, it’s nice to meet you,” said the woman whose outfit showed off much of her beautiful skin as well as held hands with the boy in an overly familiar way. Though she was beautiful she had a suspicious air about her. “Lulli… Who is she? Yo-You’re not telling me that she’s…” “Ah, yeah, she’s a Witch.” It was just as she thought. Though he wasn’t acting nervous Lulli had found himself in an incredible situation. Looking utterly bewildered at first, Yukiha then collected herself and focused her gaze on the woman again. “Nooo, don’t just reveal who I am like that, darling. It’s more interesting to let the tension build and then reveal it.” “Da-Darling?!” replied Yukiha in anger who then glared at him. “Ju-Just what is the meaning of this, Lulli?! Explain yourself!” Upon hearing this, Lulli started scratching his head in thought but then went on to say, albeit sounding a little troubled: “It seems that she wants to play around in the human world.” (Source: Deus Ex SCANS)